D25 is looking for a smaller school (under 5K pref) located in a college town within 6 hours of NYC. Seeking a welcoming community vibe without emphasis on Greek life. Areas of interest include chemistry, computer science, physics, applied math, and/or possibly engineering. Bonus for an overlay of design coursework. Programs that allow exploration during first year are preferred.
(1500 SAT, top 5% of class, ECs: STEM oriented competitions through school, varsity sports with leadership, volunteering, summer job)
In principle, the most STEM oriented smaller schools can be those with open curricula, particularly Amherst, Hamilton and Smith. At these colleges a student could take virtually all of her courses in fields such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, statistics, computing and data science. From this group, Smith also offers engineering. As a general suggestion, geosciences can be interesting to explore for a student with broad scientific interests.
Look into open curriculum schools to determine extent of strong science programming in your focus areas. Examples include Wesleyan, Vassar, Hamilton, Smith, Brown. In addition, many LACs allow for exploration with declaration of major the second semester of Sophomore year. Engineering takes the search into a different path if you consider accreditation. Perhaps someone with knowledge of ABET can weigh in.
Check out Vassar. Open curriculum. Strong in science and math. Computer science has a long history there and the kids have great outcomes. Small-ish department where students are close with profs.
You’ve already gotten some great suggestions. I’ve included some of them and have added a number of others. I’ve grouped them by my guesses as to what your D’s chances might be at these schools. What your D is looking for will be very challenging to find all in one school. So, occasionally I’ve added a school that is larger than the requested size because schools with industrial design programs tend to be at larger schools. But I tried to optimize the balance between strong natural sciences (chemistry & physics), CS, availability of ABET-accredited engineering, and some design programming (particularly industrial design) along with a student body below 5k and a low participation rate in Greek life. For schools that have a percentage by them, that’s the percentage of females who participate in sororities.
These are some schools that you may want to look into:
Amherst - cute college town. And if the fear is running out of STEM coursework, there is always cross registration at UMass Amherst (and eating at their excellent dining hall). Other schools that might suit include Brown, WPI, RPI, RIT, and U of R although some of these might be little larger than she’d prefer.
Bucknell and Lafayette were mentioned and I’d add Lehigh
All three have engineering, liberal arts and business. So you can go into STEM change out of it’s not for you or do both STEM and LA or STEM and biz.
Lafayette is the smallest, Bucknell around 4k and Lehigh is the largest. The towns also are quite different with Lewisburg (Bucknell) being the sleepy college town and more going on in Easton (Laf) and Bethlehem (Lehigh). Greek life is bigger at these schools versus some other school mentioned.
Some of the schools being mentioned have a big greek emphasis which the OP nixed in the first post, or are larger than the student is looking for. Plus engineering was mentioned. It would be helpful for the OP to clarify the priorities otherwise we’ll be throwing out names of every school within a 6 hr radius ; )
I have a sophomore at WPI and am happy to discuss and answer questions if it sparks your interest. It is definitely not a college town, being on the outskirts of Worcester. Although Worcester is a small city, most kids seem to spend time on campus.